Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has announced that it would lay off 11,000 employees out of about 87,000. In a statement, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the layoffs and gave his reasons for this move.
According to Zuckerberg, he believed outlooks that the rise of e-commerce caused by the COVID-19 pandemic was permanent acceleration that would continue after the lockdowns ended. As a result, Meta made significant investments into this sector, but the outlook eventually proved to be incorrect.
Besides the biggest job cuts in Meta's history, Zuckerberg has also announced other cost-cutting measures, such as reducing the company's real estate footprint and cutting back on some employee benefits and perks.
In October, Meta's market cap plunged by more than $80 billion after the company reported net income of $4.4 billion in the third quarter, a 52% decline compared to the same period last year.
The company suffered the worst single-day drop in US history on February 3, with $230 billion of its value being eliminated. The crash was caused by dismal Q4 2021 results as the company missed its earnings target.
Mark Zuckerberg insisted that he would remain focused on his "long-term vision for the metaverse", despite concerns by investors and experts that Meta's poor performance was caused by the company doubling down on its controversial metaverse bid.
